Journalist Katharine Mieszkowski: Exposing Problems, Holding People Accountable, and Inspiring Change

Katharine Mieszkowski is a Yale-educated investigative journalist whose work has earned her a myriad of awards. Most recently, she was part of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal podcast team that received accolades for American Rehab, a serialized investigation that exposed how thousands of desperate people were exploited for their labor when they sought out treatment for addiction. That podcast has won top prizes from the Edward R. Murrow and Investigative Reporters and Editors awards in addition to the 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for audio, which recognizes the most distinguished business and financial journalism. American Rehab, done in collaboration with PRX, was also named one of 2020’s top podcasts by The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. 

When and why did you decide to become a journalist? Have you always thought of yourself as an investigative reporter?

When I graduated from college, I really wanted to be a writer. I found I loved journalism, because I enjoyed meeting people and interviewing them.Journalism gave me access to all sorts of people, places and situations that I wouldn’t otherwise get to know, visit or experience. I felt like I had a backstage pass for life. As a journalist, you are perpetually learning new things, so I also found that very stimulating and gratifying.It was only in the middle of my career that I got into investigative journalism and discovered how rewarding it can be to expose problems, hold the people responsible accountable and inspire change. 

So many of your stories have earned well-deserved awards and recognition. But which of your stories have sparked the most change? 

Our reporting on Amazon -- first this story, then this one -- exposed a key feature of the company’s business model: it’s backbreaking production quotas that are seriously injuring warehouse workers. 

Last month, California governor Gavin Newsom signed into a law new protections for warehouse workers in the state. When Candice Dixon, a former Amazon worker, learned of the new law, it brought tears to her eyes. “Like, happy tears of thank God something good came out of this.” she told Reveal. Dixon, who was featured in our stories, suffers from debilitating chronic pain from a back injury she suffered on the job.

Do you think of yourself as a changemaker? Should journalists use their platforms for change? What are your thoughts?

I don’t think of myself as a changemaker, although I am happy when our work inspires other people to address problems we’ve called out in our reporting. The kind of journalism we do can certainly start conversations that lead to change. But I see myself more as someone who stirs things up by calling attention to problems than as a change-maker. 

How has journalism changed since you started working as a journalist? How have you adapted to those changes over the years? 

The business model to support journalism has been in flux more or less since the beginning of the commercialization of the Internet, which coincided almost exactly with the start of my career in the mid-nineties. I have adapted by working in many different mediums over the years, including newspapers, magazines, Web sites, radio shows and podcasts. 

Case in point: In 2010, I started a job at a non-profit journalism start-up covering the San Francisco Bay Area called The Bay Citizen. We published our stories on our site, as well as twice-a-week in the Bay Area pages of the New York Times. The Bay Area pages were a special section of the paper that ran in print editions sold locally. 

But after our biggest funder died, that organization became a part of The Center for Investigative Reporting, where I now work on Reveal, our radio show and podcast. So, I went from doing regional coverage as a print and online reporter to doing audio stories for a national, investigative radio show without ever going to a job interview! The moral of the story: If you want to have a career in journalism these days, it pays to be flexible and willing to try new things. 

Do you prefer writing articles that are to be read or producing podcasts that are to be listened to? What do you like about each medium?

I prefer producing podcasts, because I really enjoy the collaborative nature of the work. Producing great audio stories involves a whole team; not only editors, reporters and producers, but also engineers and composers. Data is also very important to many of our stories, so we often work with data reporters and editors, too. And sometimes we work with journalists producing video to create TV news or documentary versions of our stories, as well. I like the creative friction of working with people who have many different kinds of expertise, all trying to work together to tell the strongest stories we can. 

A lot of written journalism can be very solitary -- you and your editor agree on a story idea, then you go out into the world, report it and write it and bring a draft back to your editor, days or weeks later. Podcasting, at least the way we practice it at Reveal, is truly a team sport. I really appreciate the ideas and insights that you get from working collaboratively with other journalists who have different skills. 

If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give to your 17-year old self? Is that the same advice you would give me now?

I would tell you (and my younger self) that a career trajectory is very rarely a straight line. Even very successful people often meander professionally. In a long career, at least some setbacks are all but inevitable. I know extremely accomplished people who have been abruptly fired or laid off from their dream jobs. No matter how hard you work or how talented you are, you can’t insulate yourself completely from some bad times, even if they’re just a function of the overall state of the economy. That being said, I would encourage you to really enjoy the high points when they come around! One of my happiest professional memories is standing on a street corner in the early morning literally jumping up and down when I saw my first byline in the (now defunct) San Francisco Bay Guardian, weekly newspaper. Relish all your firsts and successes.